"In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist’s signature. Standing over humans,gods, and demons, subsuming Caretakers and Tunnel builders, there is an intelligence that antedates the universe." -Carl Sagan
Space Age began as just an idea for a sci-fi RPG when I was in college. I always have grand ideas, write them down, but never finish them. In the original Notepad file, titled Gates RPG, I wrote the ideas down for a setting that seemed to grand and to big to run. Later after updating to a Who, Where, When, What format; it seemed more concentrated to our solar system based on the Carl Sagan's idea of Contact, but instead these aliens had darker intentions then the book & movie. Even in the notes, I never had good names for alien species and kept them as "Species X" or "Species Z".
So almost a decade later in Colorado, my gaming group seemed burnt out to D&D 4e's over reliance on character sheets and dice rolling. Between our RPG week, a board game night of Dominion made me realize how I could use a Deck Building concepts in a card based RPG. Over the next four weeks of using a Magic Card Editor program I came up with a basic framework but needed a setting to test it. I didn't have the energy or time to come up with a homebrew one, and since most of us just finished playing Mass Effect 2, I decided to use that as the backdrop.
The campaign lasted almost a year, and to our surprise there weren't alot of fixes we had to do. (Though one player realized a cheat when he could spray bullets infinitely). By the end of the campaign of saving the Citadel from a rogue planet controlled by a psychiotic Cerberus agent, we found alot about the system. So the flurry of excitement fueled me to write an original setting which led to me looking back at my old RPG files and stumbling on the Gates RPG. It was perfect for what I wanted.
Another campaign, Space Age: Ascension, told the story of the shadow war of two alien races waging across the universe and more surprisingly, Earth. While running the campaign, I tried to look at the system as a neutral party, trying to break it and criticize it to oblivion. This led to burning out and doubting the system, stating I didn't like the math. But it was my players that continued to praise it and ask for more, but I needed a break so I ran a Planescape game based on the new Gamma World rules (yeah my group likes simplicity).
Nearing the end of the Planescape campaign, I told them we'd end it soon and switch to the FFG's Star Wars RPG, but they dragged their feet. And after a test game to show them the cool system, they still moaned about going back to Space Age.
"I just hate character sheets." or "Im not a fan of these dice."
So back to Space Age. I think I fixed a few things, but more importantly I realized it doesn't matter if the system is broken or perfect, its if the group has fun every night. So this blog will collect all the background, rules, and other stuff that flies through my head.
If you are interested in the game PLEASE PLEASE let me know. I would love feedback.
So almost a decade later in Colorado, my gaming group seemed burnt out to D&D 4e's over reliance on character sheets and dice rolling. Between our RPG week, a board game night of Dominion made me realize how I could use a Deck Building concepts in a card based RPG. Over the next four weeks of using a Magic Card Editor program I came up with a basic framework but needed a setting to test it. I didn't have the energy or time to come up with a homebrew one, and since most of us just finished playing Mass Effect 2, I decided to use that as the backdrop.
The campaign lasted almost a year, and to our surprise there weren't alot of fixes we had to do. (Though one player realized a cheat when he could spray bullets infinitely). By the end of the campaign of saving the Citadel from a rogue planet controlled by a psychiotic Cerberus agent, we found alot about the system. So the flurry of excitement fueled me to write an original setting which led to me looking back at my old RPG files and stumbling on the Gates RPG. It was perfect for what I wanted.
Another campaign, Space Age: Ascension, told the story of the shadow war of two alien races waging across the universe and more surprisingly, Earth. While running the campaign, I tried to look at the system as a neutral party, trying to break it and criticize it to oblivion. This led to burning out and doubting the system, stating I didn't like the math. But it was my players that continued to praise it and ask for more, but I needed a break so I ran a Planescape game based on the new Gamma World rules (yeah my group likes simplicity).
Nearing the end of the Planescape campaign, I told them we'd end it soon and switch to the FFG's Star Wars RPG, but they dragged their feet. And after a test game to show them the cool system, they still moaned about going back to Space Age.
"I just hate character sheets." or "Im not a fan of these dice."
So back to Space Age. I think I fixed a few things, but more importantly I realized it doesn't matter if the system is broken or perfect, its if the group has fun every night. So this blog will collect all the background, rules, and other stuff that flies through my head.
If you are interested in the game PLEASE PLEASE let me know. I would love feedback.
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